Interesting Clock Facts

Why do they call Them “grandfather clocks”?

In the earliest days of clock making, the clock’s movement was cased in a small “box” with a dial on the front and was made to be hung on the wall where the pendulum and weights were hanging free in the open air. With nothing to protect the pendulum it could easily be upset by a breeze and the clock would stop. Eventually they began to build cabinets around the pendulum and weights in order to protect them. The cases eventually got longer and longer until these clocks were then able to stand on the floor without being hung and were termed tall case, hall or floor clocks.

The term “grandfather clock” was popularized in 1875 when a song written by Henry C. Work called “Grandfather’s Clock” was published. The song’s title referred to a clock owned by the song writer’s grandfather, which happened to be a tall case or floor clock. It became a very popular song in its day, and the sheet music reportedly sold over 800,000 copies, quite a number in those days. Some of the lyrics were as follows:

My grandfather’s clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a penny weight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day he was born,
And always his treasure and pride;
But it stopp’d short never to go again
When the old man died.

In watching it’s pendulum swing to and fro,
Many hours he spent while a boy;
And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty four when he entered the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopp’d short never to go again
When the old man died.

It rang an alarm in the dead of the night
An alarm that for years had been dumb;
And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time,
With a short and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side;
But it stopp’d short never to go again
When the old man died.

In fact, the song was so popular that a few years later, a sequel was written by the original composer and was titled, “Sequel to Grandfather’s Clock.” In the sequel we are told of the clock’s sad ending. The grandson, upon returning to his grandfather’s house, which is now owned by others, learns of its fate. The clock having not run since his grandfather’s death was traded in for another clock which was hung on the wall in its place. The clock peddler took the clock to a junk shop where its parts were melted down. The case was then chopped into kindling by the junk-dealer’s wife, a sad ending indeed. I guess there weren’t any good clockmakers nearby!